Posted on 09/19/2001 8:34:41 PM PDT by Southflanknorthpawsis
Phil Brennan
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001
All across America people paused to remember the victims of the atrocity visited upon this nation on Sept. 11 - Black Tuesday. In churches and in gatherings large and small, Americans sang such patriotic hymns as "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America." Many prayed, often reciting the Lord's Prayer.
I wonder how many of us realized what we were really doing when we sang those songs or prayed the Lord's Prayer. Did we pay attention to the words we sang or uttered?
Take the words of "America the Beautiful," for instance. We sang "God shed his grace on thee," acknowledging that America owes its very existence to Him.
Generations of Americans have recognized that the nation has been singularly blessed by God. This magnificent land - these fruited plains and purple mountains majesty - became the refuge for millions of people the world over seeking the liberty and opportunity never before available to mankind in all history. They found both in the greatest abundance.
Only fools could doubt the presence of God's hands in providing this new world and guiding its destiny. Obviously He had, and has, a divine purpose in placing us under his special protection.
In the Lord's Prayer we say "Thy will be done ..." in effect putting ourselves in God's hands and, if we really mean what we say, leaving our destiny up to Him.
There's a flip side to this: failing to do God's will puts our destiny in our own fallible hands, leaving us hostage to whatever fate our willfulness leads us. God doesn't punish us in the Old Testament manner, hurling thunderbolts at His disobedient children. He simply leaves us to our own devices and corruption and allows us to create our own punishments, something at which we are very adept.
But He's always there, ready to reach down and create order out of the disorder we have brought upon ourselves by turning our backs on Him.
"Thy will be done ..." Do we really think it is God's will that even mention of His name is banned in public observances, that His Commandments may not be displayed in public places, that a nation founded on Judaic-Christian principles cannot acknowledge His existence, that schoolchildren cannot pay homage to Him or seek His guidance?
Is it God's will that this nation upon which he bestowed more blessings than ever given to any other land in all human history should have allowed the horror of the murder for profit by the abortion industry of 40 million unborn children? Or the wanton sale of their body parts? Countless polls have shown that the great majority of Americans view this atrocity as outright murder, yet also believe that it should still be allowed to exist as the legal right of mothers determined to slay the unborn children in their wombs. Can they honestly tell God they want His will to be done?
Is it God's will that pornography has been allowed to become an immensely profitable industry, available to even the youngest of our children, or that the number of divorces that brutalize the children of the families so broken should rival the number of marriages? That marriage itself should be downgraded to a matter of convenience, to be broken for the most trivial of reasons? Or that millions of young couples should avail themselves of the intimacy of marriage without accepting the commitment of marriage?
Obviously it's not. As a result, we have simply told the Lord that it is our will that will be done, and not His. We have therefore put ourselves in the same predicament that befell Babylon and Greece and Rome and countless other empires that turned away from God.
Today we face a perilous and uncertain future in which the horrors of Black Tuesday will be merely a prelude of disasters yet to come. This prosperous nation could, in the blink of an eye, be reduced to penury, with millions of Americans facing the kind of poverty endemic in Third World countries. Black Tuesday was merely a hint of what could come upon us.
This needn't be. We should recall the Book of Jonah, when that prophet warned the people of Nineveh that "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," if they failed to repent and reform. They did, and Nineveh was spared.
"When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, He repented of the evil that He had threatened to do to them; He did not carry it out." (Jonah 2:16)
We can put ourselves in God's loving hands and be assured that whatever happens to us will be because He wills it - knowing that whatever He wills is meant for our own good and to benefit our immortal souls, which in the end is all that matters. As St. Augustine reminded us, "He made us for Himself, and we will not rest until we rest in Him."
In other words, we have to follow the example of the people of Nineveh - repent and reform. That means we have to banish the evils we, as a nation and as a people now tolerate. When we do we can pray "Thy will be done," and mean it.
Until then, God help us, we're on our own.
Joshua 23
3 And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you.
4 Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward.
5 And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.
6 Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;
7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them:
8 But cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day.
9 For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day.
10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
11 Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.
I suppose the flames are the result of "us" not wanting to look closely at ourselves. We get squirmy. People recoil because they interpret such points being made at this time as a form of blaming America for what has occurred. That simply isn't the case. In reality, this could have been said just as well a month ago or a year ago.
On the brighter side........perhaps this present horror that drove many slackers to church and to waving their flags will have a lasting effect and begin to turn more people back to God. I pray so.
We can't even repent, unless God sends the spirit of repentence to us. So I hope the Christians of FR will pray that God loose the spirit of repentence and pour it out on our nation.
You may have overestimated...........it may not even reach ten.
These terrorists would hate us if we were all 100% perfect Christians. They hate us because we are not them, because we value women, because we are Americans.
I understand the point of national repentence, but I do not think that using this tragedy is exactly the correct approach.
I am glad to see so many people returning to their faith, however.
Oh, I agree. I don't want to be misunderstood. That's why I said it could have just as well been said before WTC. My emphasis is on the points that too many in our nation have turned their backs on God and there are consequences that flow from that rejection.
That said, I don't at all believe that this was God's wrath or invited because of our immorality. What I do believe is that it opens our eyes to our helplessness without God and makes us rethink His will for our lives. It may be the greatest opportunity for waking people up that has happened in a long while.
This is not the same thing as saying God brought the series of terror attacks on 9-11-01 about.
Just that God let evil have it's way in that instance.
Many people in America seem to have a belief in expecting God's blessings without obedience.
Abortion, Adultery, Promiscuity, Gay Pride, Pornography, and all other aspects of living a lifestyle solely devoted to pleasure is what too many people in America are all about.
The people on the hijacked planes and in the World Trade Center towers (and in the Pentagon) that died and were ready to meet God are in heaven now. As for those that weren't ready to meet God because they were living in unrepentent sin... well, let's just say I hope they got themselves right with God in their last frantic moments before they died.
As the last Presidential election showed, America is a divided country.
Yes, there are still many God-fearing Christians in America shocked at seeing the point we have gotten to as a once Godly nation. But there are also many America who worship a different god - a liberal, fun-loving god who wants us to experience pleasure without consequences.
I think that America as a nation will not repent of it's sins - Abortion, Adultery, Promiscuity, Homosexuality, Pornography, etc., etc.
And so I expect that America as a nation will continue to suffer the effects of God's protection removed from us, and that evil will be allowed to have it's way again against us in the future.
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